The invention relates generally to power delivery in electronic circuits and more particularly to thermal management of heat associated with an electronic component.
Competition and consumer demand have continued the trends toward faster, higher performance electrical systems, particularly with regard to computer systems. As microprocessors and associated integrated circuits (IC's) operate at higher speeds, the power requirements for these devices also increase. The speed of the microprocessor is influenced by how quickly the microprocessor's internal transistors can switch on and off. Lowering the operating voltage enables faster switching and correspondingly higher speeds. However, as the operating voltage is reduced, operating currents are increased to maintain power to the associated integrated circuits. Increasing current can result in undesirable power drain or power losses.
Modern high speed IC devices, including microprocessors, which is sometimes referred to as a central processing unit (“CPU”), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC's), memory sockets, or power connectors, and the like, generate large amounts of heat during operation which must be removed from the device in operation, otherwise, unstable operation or damage to the device may result. In the case of a CPU, for example, a heat sink is typically mounted above the CPU along with a fan to dissipate heat from the heat sink to the surrounding atmosphere, thus enhancing the CPU cooling process. This internally generated heat, however, is not the only concern for the CPU and other IC devices. There is an additional heat load associated with the delivery of power for running the IC device. As the IC devices become more and more powerful with more and more transistors, power requirements go up dramatically. As the power requirement of the IC device increases, so does the need to eliminate additional heat from beneath the device. The additional heat travels from a motherboard to the IC device and from the IC device to the motherboard through a socket in which the device is mounted. This additional heat can represent a significant thermal load. That load affects the conductivity of the socket contacts and the communication speed of the IC device and supporting motherboard traces. While much effort has gone into thermal management above the IC device, little has been done to remove heat from beneath the device.